[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 130 (Thursday, July 6, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 41671]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-17092]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30 DAY-50-00]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a 
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call 
the CDC Reports Clearance Officer at (404) 639-7090. Send written 
comments to CDC, Desk Officer; Human Resources and Housing Branch, New 
Executive Office Building, Room 10235; Washington, DC 20503. Written 
comments should be received within 30 days of this notice.

Proposed Projects

    National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) System (0920-
0012)--Revision--National Center for Infectious Disease (NCID), Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The most recent renewal of 
the NNIS system was in 1997. The NNIS system, which was instituted in 
1970, is an ongoing surveillance system currently involving 315 
hospitals that voluntarily report their nosocomial infections data to 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who aggregates 
the data into a national database. The data are collected using 
surveillance protocols developed by CDC for high risk patient groups 
(ICU, high-risk nursery, and surgical patients). Instructional manuals, 
training of surveillance personnel, and a computer surveillance 
software are among the support that CDC provides without cost to 
participating hospitals to ensure the reporting of accurate and uniform 
data.
    The purpose of the NNIS system is to provide national data on the 
incidence of nosocomial infections and their risk factors, and on 
emerging antibiotic resistance. The data are used to determine the 
magnitude of various nosocomial infection problems and trends in 
infection rates among patient with similar risks. They are used to 
detect changes in the epidemiology of nosocomial infections resulting 
from new medical therapies and changing patient risks. New to the NNIS 
system is the monitoring of antibiotic resistance and antimicrobial use 
in groups of patients to describe the epidemiology of antibiotic 
resistance and to understand the role of antimicrobial therapy to this 
growing problem. The NNIS system can also serve as a sentinel system 
for the detection of nosocomial infection outbreaks in the event of 
national distribution of a contaminated medical product or device.
    The respondent burden is not the same in each hospital since the 
hospitals can select from a wide variety of surveillance options. A 
typical hospital will monitor patients for infections in two ICUs and 
surgical site infections following 3 surgical operations. The 
respondent burden includes the time and cost to collect data on 
nosocomial infections in patients in these groups and the denominator 
data to characterize risk factors in the patients who are being 
monitored; to enter the data as well as a surveillance plan into the 
surveillance software; to send the data to CDC by electronic 
transmission; and complete a short annual survey and administrative 
forms. The annualized burden is estimated to be 71,259 hours.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                 Average
                                                     Number of   burden/
              Respondent                Number of   responses/  response
                                       respondents  respondent     (in
                                                                 hours)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hospitals............................        315           12       1.30
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    Dated: June 29, 2000.
Nancy Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[FR Doc. 00-17092 Filed 7-5-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P